


Paradise Lost

by 0bviousLeigh



Category: SNH48
Genre: Alternate Ending, F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-11-25
Updated: 2018-11-25
Packaged: 2019-08-29 07:18:54
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 3
Words: 2,581
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16739551
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/0bviousLeigh/pseuds/0bviousLeigh
Summary: 3 ways the MV for 森林法则 could have ended. They are all rather bloody, and in the last two Yue doesn't survive.





	1. Survivor

**Author's Note:**

> If you're not an SNH48 fan but for some reason want to read this, you should really [watch the MV](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j6UXOCQm89Q) first

From the beginning, none of this felt real. Not waking up while falling from the sky, not watching that one girl run into an invisible barrier and get shocked to death, not hitting that other girl over the head with the frying pan. The only thing that feels real is XinDuo and her kindness, and that’s why Yue half believes that this is just an elaborate TV show, or maybe even a dream. Because there is no way a sweet girl like XinDuo would be here if this was really a fight to the death. Who would put a girl like that in this situation?

Yue is embarrassed when she wakes up and realizes that she fell asleep in the middle of their conversation.

“You were about to tell me what you would do if you left,” Yue says as they get ready to leave.

XinDuo nods. “Yeah, but I didn’t really know what I was going to say. Maybe I’d be a doctor.” She gestures to her first-aid kit. “I’ve got experience, haven’t I?” she asks, and her eyes fill with tears, but she brushes them away.

Before they leave, Yue hands her a gun. “You’ve got to survive.”

XinDuo looks surprised, but nods. “I’ve got your back,” she vows.

They hear gunfire coming from the east, so they head west to the beach in hopes of finding fruit on the trees. They remain watchful, and XinDuo is the one who spots the injured girl. She drops her gun and rushes to check on her.

“Hang on, I have pain killers,” XinDuo says.

But Yue sees the blood on the girls’ skirt and legs. She’s been wounded low in her torso, probably suffered punctured organs. She’s going to die soon, and even if XinDuo could help her, this girl would need surgery.

“You can’t save her,” Yue says harshly, pushing XinDuo away. XinDuo looks ready to cry, but she gets up and walks away.

The injured girl grabs Yue’s leg as she’s about to walk away. Yue whips out her hand gun.

“Shoot me,” the girl begs.

Yue dumps all the bullets but one into her hand, spins the chamber and hands it to the girl. If she wants to die that badly, she’ll do it.

She walks back to XinDuo, and seconds later they hear a shot. XinDuo turns, but Yue urges her on. She doesn’t need to see that. This is starting to feel very, very real.

Another night comes. XinDuo hasn’t spoken since the beach, and though they found some food she hasn’t eaten either. Yue approaches her as the sun goes down.

“I’m sorry,” she says quietly.

XinDuo nods. “I know.”

“You couldn’t have saved her.”

XinDuo bows her head. “What kind of place is this?”

Yue puts her arm around XinDuo’s shoulders.

 

* * *

 

 

Yue thought she was so clever, using the truck’s mirrors to look for the shooter. It all happens so fast, XinDuo flies into Yue’s field of vision, and then the gunshot echoes across the yard. Yue turns in time to see XinDuo fall, face down.

“NO!” Yue screams. She leaps up and starts firing everywhere, but she knows in her heart that she hasn’t hit the other shooter. She turns back to XinDuo—maybe she was just grazed, maybe there’s still hope. She falls to her knees and reaches out.

“XinDuo?”

She brushes shaking fingers over XinDuo’s cheek, and then she sees the blood and gore at the back of her neck.

Yue doubles over, sobbing. No, no, it’s not fair! XinDuo was too good, too sweet and caring for this place. She didn’t deserve this, Yue should have protected her, should have told her to run, save herself. She should have been faster to find the other shooter, she should have done a thousand things differently, and XinDuo should be alive.

The watch chirps at her. She already knows what the body-count will read, two survivors. Yue contemplates taking XinDuo’s gun and shooting herself, but she can’t let XinDuo’s killer be the one to live. And in that moment, she knows she can’t leave XinDuo here, either. She heaves XinDuo, backpack and all, onto her back, and sets off for the beach. She’s going to make this girl come to her, to the lifeboat. That’s where Yue started this, that’s where she wants it to end.

XinDuo’s full, dead weight isn’t easy to carry, but Yue refuses to leave her. she sweats buckets, her back aches, and her neck is sticky with what she knows is XinDuo’s blood, but she will not let XinDuo stay in this nightmare. She’s got a fire burning in her, and rage to fuel it. She’s going to get off this island, and when she gets home she’s going to make sure that everyone knows Feng XinDuo’s name and how kind she was, even to the end.

The sun is high in the sky when Yue gets to the beach. She lays XinDuo on the sand and touches her cheek. She’s starting to feel cold, even though it’s hot as hell. Yue fights back tears—this is not the time to go to pieces. She stands up and fires into the air.

“COME ON!” She screams.

It doesn’t take long for the other girl to show up. She’s pristine, not a trace of blood on her clothes, hair perfectly styled, she doesn’t even look like she’s been sweating. Yue knows she’s drenched in sweat and blood and there’s tears and snot on her face. She throws aside her machine gun, and the other girl throws aside her rifle.

They run at each other, firing their hand guns, and they each miss, and finally they’re face to face and Yue is out of bullets. The other girl pauses to give Yue a gloating smirk, and Yue grabs her wrist and twists it. The gun fires, but the bullet misses.

Yue punches the other girl as hard as she can, but the girl pulls out a knife. Yue stumbles back as the girl slashes madly. Yue grabs her and tries to wrest the gun away, but the other girl is strong, she breaks free and slashes Yue.

Yue falls, and the girl grins at her, feral and murderous. Yue’s watch beeps.

WARNING.

The barrier!

Yue gets to her feet and stares the other girl down. She lunges, and Yue grabs her and twists, using the girls’ own momentum against her to shove her as hard and as far as she can. And it’s just far enough.

The barrier activates, and electricity crackles. The girl doesn’t even scream, just drops to the sand. There’s a click and Yue feels the watch loosen.

“We did it,” she gasps.

She staggers back to XinDuo’s body and heaves her up once more. “We’re going home now,” she whispers. “I’m taking you home.”

She’s going to make sure the world hears their story.


	2. Betrayal

“What do you think we did, to be sent here?” Yue asks XinDuo, just before they settle in and try to sleep. “Do you think it was because…someone hated us? Not that I can imagine anyone hating you, all you’ve done is try to save people.”

“I would hope that’s not the case,” XinDuo says, “That someone sent us here as a type of revenge. But I feel like it’s worse if it was random.”

It’s true, in a way. If there was no reason, if all of this was just random, and maybe some of these girls who are dead now had no reason to be here, if they were good people…Yue wants to throw up just thinking about it, so she stops thinking about it.

If she makes it out of here, she really is going to try to be a better person. She won’t hole herself up in her room with video games, she’ll go back to school, she won’t yell at her parents—she’ll live her life grateful that she’s gotten a second chance.

“I can’t imagine anyone hating you that much, either,” XinDuo says.

“I’m not a good person,” Yue responds instantly.

“You seem like a pragmatist from where I’m standing. Or, sitting,” XinDuo says with a chuckle. “Even here, you just seem like a survivor to me.”

Yue knows by now that this…place, is rigged to allow only one person to get through the barrier and to the lifeboat. That means XinDuo or herself aren’t going to make it home. If she were really a terrible person, she’d shoot XinDuo now. Or XinDuo could do the same to her. But XinDuo seems really nice, and Yue trusts her. Or at least, she wants to trust her. Yue hopes to god she doesn’t have to kill XinDuo, she doesn’t know how she would live with herself. Then again, she doesn’t know how she’ll live with herself if XinDuo dies.

* * *

 

Yue sees the red light on XinDuo’s chest, and she knows what it means. She doesn’t think, she follows the light and fires, shot after shot, in the direction of the light. She hears a scream, and she yells, “XinDuo, stay down!”

She’s shaking as she approaches the area she shot at. A sniper rifle sits atop a cement truck, but she can’t see anyone. She darts around to one side and finds the girl on the ground, blood blossoming over her chest and dripping from her mouth. Yue feels a thrill of triumph, and then a jolt of shame for being happy that she just killed someone.

The girl looks right at Yue and laughs. “Nice shot,” she wheezes, holding up her hand. Yue gags—her fingers are blown off.

Yue wonders if she ought to shoot the girl and put her out of her misery. But she has a feeling this girl is the one whose been killing nearly everyone else, maybe she’ll let her suffer.

A shot from behind makes Yue jump. Blood and bone burst from the downed girl’s head, and Yue turns to see XinDuo with her gun pointed right—

Yue hears the shot but doesn’t feel the pain right away, instead she just feels an intense pressure that sends her backwards. The gun in her hands goes flying to the side, and then there’s another shot, and this one she feels, right in her chest. She gasps and can’t get any air. She hits the ground.

The sky is blue and calm. XinDuo hovers over her.

“What…?” Yue asks. Her chest hurts so bad, she can feel the blood soaking her shirt. XinDuo just shot her…she can honestly say, she never saw that coming. Maybe she should have shot her last night.

“I have to make it out of here,” XinDuo says. She smiles, her eyes cold and hard. “So sorry, but I guess we were never really friends, were we?”

Yue grits her teeth. “Bitch,” she hisses. Definitely should have shot her last night.

XinDuo presses her gun to Yue’s head. Yue closes her eyes.


	3. Loser

Yue can’t believe all those night of playing point and shoot video games actually paid off and taught her how to operate a machine gun. She can’t believe how the gun in her hands feel just like the one in the game, and she can’t believe she hasn’t actually used it to kill anyone—just take a few practice shots at empty soda cans. That doesn’t mean she’s ever touching those video games again. She doesn’t think she could stand it, after all this. She’ll probably never be able to touch a frying pan either.

_The crunch of bone as it connected with the girls’ head, the vibration that went up her arm, the sound of the body hitting the sand—_

“Yue?”

Yue jumps and closes her eyes, fighting back a wave of nausea. “I’m okay,” she assures XinDuo.

“Are you alright?” XinDuo asks.

She’s much too sweet for this place, this horrible killing ground. How did she end up here?

“Just…ready for this to be over with,” Yue says. “Let’s find this girl and kill her.” What’ll happen after that is something Yue’s trying not to think about.

They creep around the parking lot as quietly as they can, looking around corners and under the trucks. There’s a cement facility in front of them, probably where the girl is hiding. They won’t have any shelter as they cross the lot, but it’s their best chance. Yue jerks her head in that direction, and XinDuo nods. They approach warily.

Yue sees the red light on XinDuo’s chest, and she knows what it means. She doesn’t think, she follows the light and fires, shot after shot, in the direction of the light. She hears a scream, and she yells, “XinDuo, stay down!”

She’s shaking as she approaches the area she shot at. A sniper rifle sits atop a cement truck, but she can’t see anyone. She darts around to one side and finds the girl on the ground, blood blossoming over her chest and dripping from her mouth. Yue feels a thrill of triumph, and then a jolt of shame for being happy that she just killed someone.

The girl looks right at Yue and laughs. “Nice shot,” she wheezes, holding up her hand. Yue gags—her fingers are blown off.

Yue wonders if she ought to shoot the girl and put her out of her misery. But she has a feeling this girl is the one whose been killing nearly everyone else, maybe she’ll let her suffer.

A shot from behind makes Yue jump. Blood and bone burst from the downed girl’s head, and Yue turns to see XinDuo with her gun pointed right—

The reaction is automatic. Yue never took her finger off the trigger, and she pulls it, unleashing a barrage of bullets. XinDuo’s gun falls, and she goes down.

“NO!” Yue screams, horrified at herself, “Oh god, what have I done?!”

XinDuo stares up at Yue. “Bitch,” she snarls.

It takes a half second for it to register. XinDuo is reaching for her gun, and Yue kicks it away. Realization is dawning, but she wants to deny it.

“Y-you were going to kill me?” Yue gasps.

XinDuo bares her teeth, half pain, half snarl, and spits, “It’s a game, isn’t it? I guess you win.”

Yue drops her gun. “No,” she repeats, “No, I…I never wanted it like this!”

XinDuo is bleeding out. Yue falls to her knees.

“Congratulations,” XinDuo wheezes, and her head falls back, the life leaving her eyes.

The watch falls from Yue’s wrist. She’s won, she gets to go home now.

But twenty three people are dead, three of them at Yue’s hands. Four, if she counts the girl she gave a gun to. And yes, she should. She killed three people, right? What’s one more?

She starts to laugh. She killed four people, but she gets to go home now! She can go to the beach and get in the boat, go home and pretend none of it ever happened. Can she even do that? Can she live with the memory of this place, with blood on her hands and XinDuo’s venomous words in her head?

XinDuo’s gun lies near the body of the other girl. Yue stands and goes to pick it up. XinDuo was going to kill her with it.

Yue goes back to XinDuo’s body and sits next to her.

“You’re wrong,” she tells the corpse. “Nobody wins in this game.”

She puts the gun under her chin.


End file.
